The Easiest Way to
Save Money on Commercial Property Taxes

Download the Commercial Property Tax Whitepaper

Our managing partner Blake Watterson has written a whitepaper detailing
everything you need to know about commercial property tax.

You can scroll down to read the first page, or enter your details in the form
below and download the full PDF!

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Why Resolute?

Property taxes are a significant factor in every property owner’s bottom-line. Commercial property
tax rates in Texas are high, and so are their effect on your building’s profitability. Most building
owners know that they can protest their valuation, but effectively doing so is not an easy process
without a broad access to data and evidence tools and a deep knowledge of appraisal and valuation
methods. And the time that this all takes can be quite the nuisance.

We help you free up valuable time and resources to focus on doing what actually makes you money. We
analyze tens of thousands of properties each year, and we’ve found that the majority of them are
paying taxes based on valuations that are objectively too high. The breadth of properties that we
value each year gives us the ability to model your property’s correct value with a high degree of
specificity.

Here’s how we help:

Service

Call other firms and you’ll deal with a new person almost every time. At Resolute, you can call and
speak to the specialist handling your case.

Effort

The general fear many have is that their case will slip through the cracks - that your property will
take a back seat to other more valuable properties. At Resolute, commercial hearing evidence will be
carefully created by a full-time property tax consultant with 10 or more years of experience in
commercial valuation. Every time.

Long-Term Impact

We always give our best effort. The best approach at valuation does not always reveal itself
quickly. So we leave no stone unturned when seeking the lowest valuation for your property. Year
after year, we will expand the breadth of our understanding for you property. Our business model
focuses on providing excellent results year after year so you can have the peace of mind knowing
your taxes are in check.

Resolute has made the decision to work on commission only. We are willing to take the chance with
you. If it turns out that you are over appraised, we will meet with the Appraisal District and
negotiate your valuation. If your property is correctly appraised, you won't owe us anything.

Below you will see an excerpt of our whitepaper on commercial property taxes, written by our
managing partner Blake Watterson. Click here to download the full PDF.

With the Texas real estate market rising and your investment becoming more valuable, how are you
staying on top of your property taxes? Consider the following a guide to how your property is
taxed by the county and how to reduce your tax burden as much as possible.

Protest, Protest, Protest!

In order to get your property taxes decreased, you have to protest, or challenge, the taxable value
the county appraisal district (CAD) has placed on your property. Besides saving money immediately
on taxes, protesting allows you to establish a property value that can set you up for years of
savings. As you may know, the county can increase your commercial property tax value as much as they
see fit. The property value is subjective, which is why you want to protest the county’s valuation
if it’s unreasonably high.

The county will accept anything from a handwritten note to the state-issued protest form as an
adequate formal protest. There are a couple dates to remember through the process
These dates typically remain the same from year to year, and it’s important to meet the deadlines,
as missing them can be costly and frustrating.

How do you calculate what your property is reasonably worth? The first step is to determine the
status of the property and then place a fair range of value on it. There are three typical property
statuses:

Recently purchased – property value will change significantly

The market has changed, and therefore the CAD used a study to raise or lower
the value to their idea of a correct market level

"Cruise control" – The value was changed in a previous protest season or in litigation and
is the same or close to the value determined at that time.

Let’s break those down one by one.

Owners of recently purchased commercial properties typically do
not disclose purchase price, so essentially, the county has to subjectively guess what the purchase
amount was in order to value it. Expect the county’s value to be 85% to 90% of the purchase price.
This does not mean the value is going to be equitable to similar properties, but this is a good rule
of thumb. Since a property’s valuation falls somewhere on a spectrum, a reasonable and fair
valuation would be in the middle. This of course assumes the purchase price is higher than most
properties and lowering the value would make it more in line with other properties. It’s worth
noting that property value will usually largely increase the year after the property is purchased.
So if your valuation seems unreasonably high the year after you purchase, don’t jump to assume it’s
incorrect, though it can be surprising.

A changing market can be a difficult time to place a value on a
property. The studies used to value the property, the financials, and specific property factors need
to be thoroughly analyzed to place a reasonable value on the property. In many cases, the county
overvalues properties in changing markets, placing the property owner in a position to either
protest or live with the value. If the county overvalues your property, it’s more important than
ever to challenge this value by protesting. If no protest is led, the property will move forward at
that value and it can be very dif cult to reduce the value once nal values are certified or agreed
upon by the county.

Cruise Control – Once the property value has been reduced or
increased and agreed upon, the following year’s value will be tough to reduce if little or no change
in value has happened. One exception to this would be if no protest has been led in a few years and
the value has remained the same. In this situation, you can make the argument that
the property hasn’t been looked at thoroughly and therefore deserves another look from someone
other than the CAD. In the situation where the value did not...

There's much more where that came from! Click here to download the full PDF.

Lower your property taxes today.

If we do not achieve a lower tax valuation for
you — Our services are free.